THINGS YOUR MOTHER SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU

1. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

2. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

3. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

4. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

5. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

6. For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

7. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

8. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

9. Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

10. Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

11. Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

12. Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

13. Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

14. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

15. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

16. Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

17. Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

18. Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... guess what! ... static is gone.

19. Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. (Or spray the measuring cup or spoon with Pam before using)

20. Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

21. Re-opening envelopes
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

22. Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

23. Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

24. Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

25. Dryer Filter
Even if you are very diligent about cleaning the lint filter in your dryer it still may be causing you a problem. If you use dryer sheets a waxy build up could be accumulating on the filter causing your dryer to over heat. The solution to this is to clean your filter with with a toothbrush and hot soapy water every 6 months.

10種減肥不發胖的食物

減肥是現如今最時髦的話題，而且受眾面積很廣，男女老少嘴裏都嚷嚷著減肥。光靠節食來瘦身的做法是非常不科學的，只有將運動和飲食結合起來才能事半功倍。今天就給大家說說如何運用食療方法達到減肥的效果，給您推薦10種刮油不發胖的食物，還有排毒治便秘的功效，快來看看吧！

 ❉ 1. 洋蔥：促進消化，不含脂肪 洋蔥含有豐富的維生素，能夠促進消化吸收，且洋蔥不含脂肪，是減肥的不二之選。洋蔥還含有前列腺素A，能夠降低血脂和幫助鈉鹽的排泄，有效改善水腫。

 ❉ 2. 玉米：促進排泄 玉米含有大量的鈣、磷、硒和卵磷脂、維生素E等，均具有降低血清膽固醇的作用，所含的粗纖維能夠潤腸通便，鎂元素則能加強腸胃蠕動，促進排泄。

 ❉ 3. 蘋果：降脂 蘋果含有豐富的果膠，有非常好的降脂、降血糖的作用，含有的膳食纖維能夠滿足身體對纖維素的需求，起到潤腸通便的功效。蘋果中還含有多種維生素，能夠促進消化吸收，讓你越吃越瘦。

 ❉ 4. 韭菜：增進胃腸蠕動 韭菜含鈣、磷、鐵、糖和蛋白、維生素A、維生素C之外，韭菜含有大量維生素和粗纖維，能增進胃腸蠕動，治療便秘，能排除腸道中過多的營養，其中包括多餘的脂肪。

 ❉ 5. 蘑菇：保持腸內水分 蘑菇中所含的人體很難消化的粗纖維、半粗纖維和木質素，可保持腸內水分，並吸收餘下的膽固醇、糖分，將其排出體外，對預防便秘有很好的功效。研究發現蘑菇還有降低血糖的作用。

 ❉ 6. 冬瓜：防止脂肪堆積　 冬瓜中富含丙醇二酸，能有效控制體內的糖類轉化為脂肪，防止體內脂肪堆積，還能把肥胖多餘的脂肪消耗掉，有很好的減肥效果。而且冬瓜幾乎不含熱量，減肥的人可以多吃。

 ❉ 7. 海帶：清除膽固醇　 海帶含有大量的不飽和脂肪酸和食物纖維，能清除附著在血管壁上的膽固醇，調順腸胃，促進膽固醇的排泄；所含的豐富的鈣元素可降低人體對膽固醇的吸收，這三種物質協同作用，其降脂效果更好。


 ❉ 8. 雞蛋：使脂肪膽固醇乳化成小顆粒　 雞蛋黃中含有卵磷脂是一種乳化劑，可使脂肪膽固醇乳化成極小顆粒，從血管排除後為機體所利用。但每天吃雞蛋不可超過2個，否則會有膽固醇過高的危險。

 ❉ 9. 豆腐：不含膽固醇 豆腐營養豐富，含有鐵、鈣、磷、鎂等人體必需的多種微量元素，還含有糖類、植物油和豐富的優質蛋白。但豆腐不含膽固醇，不想長胖的人可以多吃哦。

 ❉ 10. 芹菜：利尿消腫 芹菜含有豐富的粗纖維，有便秘煩惱的人建議多吃，有助於潤腸通便，讓你的小腹變得更加平坦。而且芹菜含有利尿有效成分，能夠消除體內水鈉瀦留，利尿消腫。